Lots of Thoughts
I received a text message (a series of them, all connected) the other day from a friend of my older sister's whom I have met precisely once. I received this text from my sister, since he sent it to her with the request that she forward it to me.
The message instructed me to get my ass out of the bar and go home to take care of my daughter. (I hadn't been in the bar, I was in fact on my way home from work, not that this is too important an issue in the overall scheme of things.) He explained to me that my drinking problem and spending all of my time in the bar was going to estrange me from my daughter like he is estranged from his fourteen year old son.
This portion of the message has some merit. I believe I indicated to you folks that the time around the last day or two of my wife and daughter being in the hospital, and the first day or two while I was trying to figure out what to do with this little thing, I did spend several hours each day after work in the bar. I won't deny or excuse that. Then I got my ass out of the bar and went back to my wife to figure out how to do my part.
He goes on to say that I should stop riding my sister's ass about being a bad mom. (Sorry about the language by the way, I am mostly relaying the tone of the message itself.) I haven't said anything recently to my sister about being a bad mom, although I have occasionally questioned whether specific actions were due to her daughter's best interest or out of spite. None of them recent. Certainly not "riding her ass."
He continued to state that the reason that I should stop my wild ride on the donkey of my older sister was because I myself was proving to be a lousy father.
Needless to say, I haven't really talked to her in the last day or so. I would say that I can't believe she would do such a thing, but I can. Here she is, not only spreading minor vulnerabilities of her brother on to strangers, but she exaggerates them to make me look like a monster. Obviously this guy who doesn't even live in the same state as me can't gauge my fatherhood. Why? Because nobody can. SHE'S 2 WEEKS AND 3 DAYS OLD! I haven't had time to be good or bad for her. I am neutral. I am the chest she sleeps on while I watch poker in the evenings. I am the one that walks with her to calm her down when her mother is done feeding her. There is no good or bad yet. I honestly haven't had enough time to screw up yet, even if I am going to.
Unfortunately, Meg's friend did have one good point that he got across loud and clear. No matter how many times Meg has stabbed me in the back and tried to make herself the center of attention at my expense, I still can't trust her. Perhaps someday I will learn to watch my back when she is around.
That was thought one. Here is thought two: I have recently found myself embroiled in debates with several people in regards to various religious denominations and paths. I often am. In the process of this I have also run across some seriously fanatical people.
Once again I am baffled by some people's positions that we are intended to suffer because it is God's will. Or that some ancient ancestor stained us with a sin so long ago that people can't even remember where his garden was, and as such we are screwed.
Those are the usual amusing notes though. Here is the new one I have contemplated. I have come across several people once again that are of a type I haven't had to deal with in such a discussion in a while. The people who don't mask the pleasure they get in the concept that they will go to heaven and get front row seats to the damnation of the world. What spiteful bastards. This is what your God is about? This is little different from those who declare that the step should be accelerated by the killing of the offenders. Suicide bombers attacking non-muslims, so called christians killing abortion doctors, other such "christians" encouraging on web sites and regular protests the murder of homosexuals. This is what God is about then? Anybody can be forgiven, including you if you take it upon yourself to kill someone before they can be saved?
These things are popping up in alarming regularity in many more examples than I have provided from all of these "mainstream religions" and they all attack me for my "and it harm none."
This seems like lunacy. Perhaps only God can understand it. Perhaps it is just life or something close to it.
The message instructed me to get my ass out of the bar and go home to take care of my daughter. (I hadn't been in the bar, I was in fact on my way home from work, not that this is too important an issue in the overall scheme of things.) He explained to me that my drinking problem and spending all of my time in the bar was going to estrange me from my daughter like he is estranged from his fourteen year old son.
This portion of the message has some merit. I believe I indicated to you folks that the time around the last day or two of my wife and daughter being in the hospital, and the first day or two while I was trying to figure out what to do with this little thing, I did spend several hours each day after work in the bar. I won't deny or excuse that. Then I got my ass out of the bar and went back to my wife to figure out how to do my part.
He goes on to say that I should stop riding my sister's ass about being a bad mom. (Sorry about the language by the way, I am mostly relaying the tone of the message itself.) I haven't said anything recently to my sister about being a bad mom, although I have occasionally questioned whether specific actions were due to her daughter's best interest or out of spite. None of them recent. Certainly not "riding her ass."
He continued to state that the reason that I should stop my wild ride on the donkey of my older sister was because I myself was proving to be a lousy father.
Needless to say, I haven't really talked to her in the last day or so. I would say that I can't believe she would do such a thing, but I can. Here she is, not only spreading minor vulnerabilities of her brother on to strangers, but she exaggerates them to make me look like a monster. Obviously this guy who doesn't even live in the same state as me can't gauge my fatherhood. Why? Because nobody can. SHE'S 2 WEEKS AND 3 DAYS OLD! I haven't had time to be good or bad for her. I am neutral. I am the chest she sleeps on while I watch poker in the evenings. I am the one that walks with her to calm her down when her mother is done feeding her. There is no good or bad yet. I honestly haven't had enough time to screw up yet, even if I am going to.
Unfortunately, Meg's friend did have one good point that he got across loud and clear. No matter how many times Meg has stabbed me in the back and tried to make herself the center of attention at my expense, I still can't trust her. Perhaps someday I will learn to watch my back when she is around.
That was thought one. Here is thought two: I have recently found myself embroiled in debates with several people in regards to various religious denominations and paths. I often am. In the process of this I have also run across some seriously fanatical people.
Once again I am baffled by some people's positions that we are intended to suffer because it is God's will. Or that some ancient ancestor stained us with a sin so long ago that people can't even remember where his garden was, and as such we are screwed.
Those are the usual amusing notes though. Here is the new one I have contemplated. I have come across several people once again that are of a type I haven't had to deal with in such a discussion in a while. The people who don't mask the pleasure they get in the concept that they will go to heaven and get front row seats to the damnation of the world. What spiteful bastards. This is what your God is about? This is little different from those who declare that the step should be accelerated by the killing of the offenders. Suicide bombers attacking non-muslims, so called christians killing abortion doctors, other such "christians" encouraging on web sites and regular protests the murder of homosexuals. This is what God is about then? Anybody can be forgiven, including you if you take it upon yourself to kill someone before they can be saved?
These things are popping up in alarming regularity in many more examples than I have provided from all of these "mainstream religions" and they all attack me for my "and it harm none."
This seems like lunacy. Perhaps only God can understand it. Perhaps it is just life or something close to it.
posted by Wanderer at 6:16 PM
1 Comments:
P.S. Yes, I know I left the latter thought open. It is too large to attack on a single post, but I will probably continue my thoughts on this. In the mean time, any of you may feel free to take a swing at it and see where it takes us.
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